Dr. Keith Griffler
Dr. Keith
Griffler is Associate Professor of African American History. His
most recent book is Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the
Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley, which recenters
the history of the Underground Railroad onto the African American frontline
communities in the port cities and towns along the Ohio which gave the
impetus for the formation and growth of the region’s underground
freedom movement. His first book, What Price Alliance? Black Radicals
Confront White Labor, 1918-1938, traces the formation of the historic
African American-labor alliance that took shape during the Great Depression.
He is currently working on a comparative social and economic history
of African American and southern African workers. Dr. Griffler is also
completing a documentary on the Underground Railroad, co-produced with
Kevin Burke of the University of Cincinnati, supported by major grants
from the Ohio Historical Society and the Charles Phelps Taft Memorial
Fund. Their documentary short film on the topic, Wade in the Water,
won four national awards, including first place from the National Broadcasting
Society in 2002. Dr. Griffler has been involved in other public history
projects on the Underground Railroad, including close collaboration with
the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, which
opened in August 2004.
For more on Professor Griffler, read the profile in the UB Reporter
Last Modified: December 20, 2006